


Of Ice and Dragon Fire

by Woofie



Category: Avatar: The Last Airbender
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Angst, Child Abuse, Dragon Zuko (Avatar), Fluff, Friendship, Gen, Hurt Zuko (Avatar), Hurt/Comfort, I just realized that, It Gets Worse Before It Gets Better, Misunderstandings, Oblivious Zuko (Avatar), Other Additional Tags to Be Added, Ozai (Avatar) Being a Terrible Parent, Ozai (Avatar) is an Asshole, Protective Zuko (Avatar), Rated For Violence, Self-Harm, Swearing, Trauma, Zuko (Avatar) Needs a Hug, Zuko (Avatar)-centric, Zuko is an Awkward Turtleduck, after all the angst, but i do know zuko will get the love and affection he deserves, but still, did i mention zuko is a dragon?, dragon!zuko, honestly i have no idea where this will go, it's zuko you know the drill, its mostly unintentional dont worry, no beta we die like jet, only halfway there, while drafting this piece of garbage
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-12-10
Updated: 2020-12-10
Packaged: 2021-03-09 20:15:41
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,492
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27972206
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Woofie/pseuds/Woofie
Summary: Zuko was born touched by the spirits.or; baby dragon boi says ‘fuck’ once and the world explodes in a revolution to save whatever remains of his innocence.or; fire breathing menace melts the entirety of the Southern Water Tribe with only his cuteness.
Relationships: Hakoda & Zuko (Avatar), The Gaang & Zuko (Avatar), Ursa & Zuko (Avatar), Zuko (Avatar) & Original Character(s)
Comments: 12
Kudos: 272





	Of Ice and Dragon Fire

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Zuko was born touched by the spirits. Unsurprisingly, this doesn't make his home life any better.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> WARNING: turtleducks were hurt briefly in the making of this chapter.
> 
> no turtleduck death cuz im not a complete monster, but i have points to get across here.

It was so blatantly obvious that Zuko was not normal. It wasn’t the type of obviousness his sister had where it took a moment for the weirdness to set in. She was, after all, only nine and nine-year-olds have a hard time being intimidating even if it is Azula. For Zuko, despite being eleven (hardly much different than nine), all it took was one look.

Teeth sharp enough to puncture his own lip if he bites a little too hard, eyes such an intense molten gold that he’s been told rival even the most Agni-blessed firebenders. Patches of what could only be described as scales gently patterned their way up the sides of his face, down his forearm, around his stomach, and back around his legs to his ankles. Both his hands and feet were coated in a thick layer of these scales and he had elongated nails that had to be clipped weekly to be comfortable. Two slightly pointed ears that were just barely outside the norm and, of course, two horn-like appendages that had begun growing from his head years previous. They were the worst of all his inhumane features. They ached daily without some sort of medical interference and were the thing everybody looked at first when seeing him. It’s what he looked at first when seeing himself in the mirror. Thankfully they were still small and if he positioned his hair just right when down, he could almost believe they didn’t exist.

Zuko wasn’t entirely sure what was wrong with him. His mother, in that soft voice she used only for him, told him he was blessed by the spirits. That he had a great future ahead of him and a destiny paved out by the dragons themselves. Others called it a curse, something to be feared. They had, after all, killed the dragons for a reason (hadn’t they?). Many were worried that Zuko was a bad omen, a sign that the original firebenders were angry, even in the afterlife. They theorized that he would bring destruction to the entire royal family, if not the fire nation itself. 

It was for that reason that Zuko couldn’t bring himself to feel betrayed by Azula’s scathing words.

“Dads gonna kill you~!” she sang loudly, twirling around on the carpet in this middle of his bedroom. Zuko clenched his fists around his blankets, ignoring the tell-tale sound of ripping fabric to glare at his overly enthusiastic sister. 

“Shut up, Azula. He is not!” he spat. He refused to feel hurt by the idea that had to be a lie. It didn’t help the panic that slowly began to spill over from his nerves.

_Azula always lies._

“He is.” she tutted, “You don’t have to believe me but I totally heard it. If you wouldn’t have run off like a coward, you would have heard it too.”

“Stop lying!” Zuko demanded.

“I’m not. Dad wants to be next in line. I guess Grandfather didn’t like that too much.” she paused, then smirked. “For your insolence you will pay~!” she mimicked dramatically, “You will know the pain of losing your first-born by sacrificing your own~!”

Before she could continue, Zuko flung himself forward with a snarl. Azula dodged him, of course, and simply laughed as she skipped over to the door. She looked him up and down, taking in his appearance like it’d be the last time she’d see it. For a moment, Zuko could swear she looked annoyed. Annoyed as if the prospect of never seeing her brother again was a bad thing. But Zuko wasn’t an idiot. His sister wasn’t capable of missing anybody, not even family. So without a single thought, he spat a frankly pathetic show of flames in her direction. Azula simply waved the fire away and left with a haughty “bye-bye,” and a half-hearted “good luck, dum-dum~!”, leaving Zuko alone.

_Azula always lies._

He panted, feeling almost detached from the world. His father wouldn’t actually kill him, right? The thought made him nauseous.

_Azula always lies._

Unwilling to simply sit around and wait for the answer, Zuko righted himself and quickly left the safety of his bedroom. He had to find his mother. She would tell him the truth and protect him. She would--

“My prince?” a voice stopped him in his tracks. A servant he didn’t recognize, probably one of his father’s, stood before him, expression blank. “Your father requests your presence.” 

_Azula always lies._

Zuko felt his blood go cold.

-

The turtleducks were scared of him. Zuko sat beside the courtyard pond, staring sadly at the babies squabbling at the other end. He tried countless times to hand-feed them like his mother did, but they refused to come anywhere near his outstretched hands.

“You just have to show them that you mean no harm.” his mother had said. Zuko thought it was stupid that he had to prove himself to a bunch of animals. He did that enough with people. And, clearly, he wasn’t very good at it. The burn scars on his hands and wrists were enough proof of that.

Letting out an indignant huff with the smallest trickle of flames, Zuko averted his gaze from the pond. He dedicated his time to watching the servants pass by while expertly ignoring the fearful response he got from some of them. He didn’t think he was particularly scary. He looked weird, definitely not handsome like his mother constantly claimed, but he never saw scary. His father was scary. Girls (Azula especially) were scary. He was just Zuko.

A tiny quack interrupted Zuko’s biting thoughts. He snapped his gaze back down to the pond and felt everything negative flood out of his system. One of the smaller turtleducks, perhaps a runt, peered up at him unabashedly from the short reeds. Zuko wasn’t quite sure what to do. None of the babies, let alone adults, had ever gotten so close to him without food in hand. Even then, they would never get too close. 

Almost shaking in excitement, Zuko slowly lowered his clawed hands into the water to gently scoop up the duckling. To his surprise, it let him do as he wanted. Within seconds, he had the small creature cradled delicately against his torso. His heart pounded heavily in his chest, as if about to explode. It was so soft. He could feel its downy fluff against the lower part of his arms (his hands had little feeling in them anymore, whether that was due to the scarring or the thick scales he did not know). It chirped cutely at him and all Zuko could feel was happiness.

“Zuko.” his father’s cold voice startles Zuko out of his revere. In his frightened state, he hears a pained squeak come from his hands. Immediately, he drops the turtleduck he had been embracing. It tumbles into the pond, staining the clear water with red as it lands. Petrified, he casts his gaze down to his hands and feels shame well up in his stomach. His nails, normally clean of even dirt, were marred with fresh blood. He’d….hurt it. Tears well up in his eyes as he watches the newly injured duckling swim back to its family.

A rough hand lands on his shoulder, feeling hot. He flinches and whirls around. His father glares down at him, looking irritated. 

-

“Again!” flames bit at the underside of his wrist, forcing him to move the hand into the correct position before he could restart the kata. He breathed in deeply, trying to force the exhaustion at bay for just a little bit longer.

Moving forward in a flurry of precise movements, Zuko willed his flames to flare and burst forward. He spun, pushing his feet in the proper maneuvers. With every motion, he cast a glance to his teacher, determined to know where he was messing up. The man’s expression showed nothing but cold resolution, unchanged even when Zuko finished the kata.

“Again!” he commanded after a moment. Zuko felt agitation bite into him, but he did not argue. He went through the moves again, using his anger to fuel his movements. It felt disconnected and even worse than his previous attempt, but when he finished, panting and almost struggling to breath, his teacher offered him a nod and waved him off.

-

Zuko didn’t like it when he was angry. Everything went into a haze, it became unbearably hard to pull oxygen into his lungs, and somebody always ended up hurt.

-

Fire engulfed his vision. He screamed, trying to escape the hand that held him firmly kneeled in place. Everything burned and Zuko begged Agni for it to be over, even if it meant he’d never wake up again.

“Ozai!” his mother’s shrill voice broke through the pain and Zuko released a helpless sob. His mother would save him. She would keep him safe. She would--

-

Zuko woke up half delirious, babbling nonsense, wondering why his entire world was rocking.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> NOTE: in case it isnt obvious already and you didnt read the tags, this will not follow a lot of canon. it will follow some waaaaay later on, but for awhile it will be completely divergent.
> 
> i hope you enjoyed this brief prologue. wasnt quite sure how to start this out but i made a valiant attempt to start up some future shite. all chapters from here on out will be 2k+ words. im pushing myself here.
> 
> also, sorry if some of the tense shite is messed up. past tense, present tense, future tense....for some reason i struggle with it. at least, i think i do. i feel like im blind to my own stupidity sometimes. how the hell i managed to graduate high school is still a mystery to me.


End file.
